Legal experts say Kilpatrick is in for a lengthy sentence—the question is how lengthy.

“Judges often come somewhere in between the recommendation of the two parties in this type of situation,” said Peter Henning, a law professor and white-collar crime expert at Wayne State University. “Certainly I would expect a sentence of at least 20 years, given the number of charges.”

If Kilpatrick is given the 28 years prosecutors are asking for, that would be among the longest sentences ever handed out for public corruption nationally.

But Henning said it’s not out of the question. “There’s definitely been a trend in the last few years, where you’re seeing [longer] sentences for this type of corruption.”

Kilpatrick’s longtime friend and former city contractor, Bobby Ferguson, will also be sentenced Thursday.

The government wants Ferguson and Kilpatrick to pay $9.6 million in restitution to the city of Detroit. Prosecutors say that’s at least how much the two men profited from illegally steering water department contracts to Ferguson’s business.

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Tomorrow a federal judge will sentence former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to a long stretch in prison for some of his crimes. Nearly seven months ago, he was convicted on 24 counts of corruption, including tax evasion, racketeering, extortion and mail fraud.

The airwaves will be full of this tomorrow. The newspapers will have a field day the next day. In Detroit, where chronicling Kilpatrick is a big-league sport of its own, there’s a lot of speculation as to how long he’ll get.

I don’t know, but I do know this: The worst punishment for this charming sociopath will probably be the one that starts after the sentencing is over. I intend to help administer this punishment, and hope my colleagues in the media will too. I intend, insofar as possible, to ignore Kwame Kilpatrick. If the rest of the media does the same, that may torment him worse than anything else.

The media have never been able to get enough of Kwame. We fawned all over him when he first ran for mayor. Here was this brilliant 31 year old, an athlete, a scholar, a blazing star in the legislature come to save his city.